This invention relates to safety and arming of self-propelled missiles or the like to insure safe separation of the missile from its launcher before detonation of the missile warhead.
Generally, safety and arming systems prevent the arming of warheads carried by projectiles until an acceptable set of conditions has been achieved. The utilization of non-interrupted explosive train control is often associated with such systems involving relatively complex electronics and expensive implementation and testing procedures.
An example of a safety and arming system for a warhead carried by a drive motor propelled missile is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,971 to Graham et al., featuring digital and analog timers activated by a combination of conditions involving launch acceleration and projectile spin to control firing of a piston slider type of interrupter locked in a safe position by a shear wire which is ruptured by a piston motor to allow the slider to move to an armed position aligning a detonator carried by the slider with a warhead explosive train. Such shear wire safety feature is removed by stored energy, while the timers are energized by a missile battery experiencing set back and projectile spin.
Other comparable prior art systems include interrupters that are spring biased, require achievement of plural conditions within a common timing window, and utilize coded signals from pneumatic, optical and electrical sources. It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a safety and arming system that is less complex, more reliable and less costly to implement and test as compared to prior functionally comparable systems.